A structural analysis of children's concepts of secrecy

Abstract

A structural analysis was made of data gathered in a qualitative study of childhood secrecy. Two hundred children aged 5 to 12 years (40 of each age group 5, 6, 8, 10, and 12 years were interviewed to explore changes in their understanding of secrecy. Children were found to move from no grasp of concealment and sharing of secrets to a one-sided grasp, to an appreciation of two-sided concealment and sharing, and to an integration of this two-sided insight. This change was accompanied by an increasing appreciation of trust and of the intentions of others. These findings suggest explanations for some puzzling aspects of results in other research (e.g., why 6-year-olds recognise a "good" secret as such but not a "bad" secret) and have implications for prevention of child abuse and the use of children as court witnesses.